The Sweet Life of Sophie

Surgery #4 Update

2012-01-14T19:23:00.001-06:00

On December 12, Sophie had her 4th surgery with Dr. Bauer, removing her second set of expanders. She did great again, and we are so blessed. Dr. Bauer was able to remove a significant amount of nevus. Sophie had 4 drains, 2 on the front and 2 on the back. She has healed remarkably well again, and we are scheduled for suture removal on Tuesday. For the last surgeries, we were able to remove the sutures ourselves, but Sophie is more aware of what is going on now and is having no part of our removing anything. That is fine with me because it takes a lot of stress off of me!

Our next surgery is scheduled for April 23, so we get a much welcome break from all things nevus removal related. We are very thankful for that!

Below is a photo that shows what Sophie's back looked like when we started (top left), after her first nevus removal surgery (bottom left), and after her last nevus removal surgery (right). It's remarkable, isn't it? We are so blessed!!

Thankful

2012-01-14T18:05:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know that I have already done a Thanksgiving post, and yes, I know that it is mid-January, but I have to say that I am so thankful on so many levels.

My sweet Mama won her battle with renal cell carcinoma and went to be with our Heavenly Father on December 10, 2011. This was so unexpected, and the most difficult thing that I have ever experienced in my entire life, but I am thankful. Thankful? You wonder how I can be thankful when I just lost my mother?

My mother was one of the sweetest, toughest, most precious women that I have ever known, and I am thankful that she is my mother. I am thankful that Sophie got to know her Nana and spend so much time with her in the short year and 9 months that they had together. I am thankful that God allowed us to have 6 years with our Mama after she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. I am thankful that Mama used that time to glorify Him and was such a strong example for all of us, even when she was so sick. I am thankful that we took advantage of the time we were given with our mama to make special memories that can never be erased.

I am thankful to be part of a family that is so close and supportive of each other, even during the toughest of times. I am thankful that when difficult decisions had to be made, we all knew what needed to be done, and we all wanted the same things. I am thankful to have a family that can pick up and move forward during the most difficult times, even when all of us cannot be there to carry our weight.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I am thankful that I will see my mama again one day in heaven. That, people, is a comfort that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

Thank you so much for your many prayers for us during this difficult time. We have felt each and every one.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T14:35:00.001-06:00

What a wonderful day!

I am so thankful to have everything I could

have ever wished for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sometimes....

2011-11-09T21:13:00.001-06:00

you just feel like you've been kicked in the gut when you get through dealing with all you have to deal with when your child has expanders. So much changes with them so quickly, and when they have a bad night or start reacting differently to very normal things, like putting them in the bathtub, you have to wonder if they are just having a bad night, or are they reacting differently because their skin is more sensitive to the water because of the expansion, or are they just being a 3 year old. Then you top off the night by trying to clip a suture that is getting irritated and festered from skin that is already stretched so tightly on the back of your very upset child, who doesn't understand why you are doing what you are doing even though you are explaining it to them the best you can. All they know is that it hurts. Whew, will I be so glad when we have this behind us - when we can have a normal life, without surgeries, expanders, fills, and more surgeries.
Don't get me wrong. I am very thankful that we have the option to remove Sophie's nevus, and I am so very thankful that Sophie is otherwise healthy and that this is only temporary. I realize that we have it so easy compared to what other children and families are having to deal with. This is what makes me continue to push through this, to be able to do these things week in and week out. But, I'm not going to lie. It is hard, but we are so blessed that Sophie is doing so well with this. She is a trooper. I, on the other hand, not so much sometimes. Tonight is one of those times.

On a positive note, we are less than 4 weeks out from Sophie's next surgery. The time is flying by so fast!Below are the latest pictures of her with 400ccs in each back expander and 315 in the one on her tummy. She thinks the expander on her tummy is so funny. She laughs and says, "Look at my big ol' tummy, Mama!". That makes all of this so much easier for all of us.

Thanks so much for your continued prayers!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-07T20:32:00.000-06:00

Halloween 2011 was quite a treat...for all of us!

This year, Sophie had a blast on Halloween. Since early October,
she would come home singing Halloween songs, some I
remember from a long, long time ago. I was surprised that they
were still being sung, and that I could still remember the words!

We began talking about what she wanted to be on Halloween.
She decided that she wanted to be a princess. We looked
around at different princess costumes, many of which I did not
really like (and she did, of course). Finally, we decided that she
would be Snow White. Sophie has Snow White's hair,
so it was perfect!

On Thursday night before Halloween,

Sophie's school held their annual Trunk-or-Treat. The

weather was perfect, and everyone came out to

enjoy the evening.

We ran into our neighbor, Lauren, there.

She plays with Sophie a lot on the weekends,

so Sophie was really excited to see her.

Sophie's friend, Lily Kate (aka, Spider Girl), soon

joined us, and they jumped right into the festivities!

They quickly filled their buckets with LOTS of candy,

so much that Sophie was soon asking me to carry her's

because it was so heavy.

As we were making the last round, Sophie and Lily Kate

ran into their classmate, Cooper (aka, Luigi). I slowed them

long enough to get a quick photo before they were

off and running again!

The night was great, but we had to hurry on home so that

~~the sugar high could wear off~~ we could get a good night's rest

before Sophie's class party the next day.

Here we are, ready to go again!

When we got to school,

Sophie's teacher, Ms. Cindy, was very surprised to see

Sophie dressed as Snow White. Apparently,

Sophie had been telling her for two weeks that she was going

to be a bunny! I'm glad I did not have a rebellion on my

hands while trying to get ready for school!

Here is Sophie's sweet class, all dressed in their costumes.

They are always smiling and laughing!

Birthdays and Ballgames

2011-11-07T19:05:00.000-06:00

So far the Fall has been very busy!

Our twin grandchildren, Bailey and Wyatt, who are walking miracles, turned 2. They celebrated a few weeks ago with a Minnie and Mickey Mouse birthday party. They are both growing so quickly and

going everywhere! They had lots of fun playing on the jungle gym outside on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Sophie got to go to her first ever Bama game, where she cheered and shook her shaker

as if she had been to numerous games before.

She only made it to half-time, but we thought that was

great considering all of the excitement she had

experienced that day!

We also went to see Nick play soccer.

I think we may have a World Cup Soccer player in the family.

He loves to play, but he's really looking forward

to the day he can strap on some pads and play

American football!

During Nick's game, Anna Kay and Sophie played their

own soccer game. They had a great time and ran off a lot

of excess energy before crashing for the night.

On Our Way

2011-10-23T13:58:00.000-05:00

Hi, everyone! I wanted to give a quick update to all of you who still follow along on our blog. Sophie is doing great since her surgery at the end of September. She has healed beautifully and is now back to her sweet little self. She stayed out of school a week while the drains were in, but she was so excited to get rid of the them and back to school to all of her friends, playtime, and lots of popsicles!

Speaking of popsicles, they have to be Sophie's all time favorite food at the moment. She asks for them All. Of. The. Time. Of course, she is not allowed to have them whenever she wants, but we try to oblige as much as possible. Popsicles helped get Sophie motivated to wake up and out of the hospital after her surgery. The nurses were great to bring as many to her as she wanted, which showed us she could eat and everything was working as it should so that we could be released to go back to the hotel for a little R&R (rest and recovery).

While Sophie was waiting to go to surgery, the wonderful staff at the hospital gave Sophie the sweet little puppy, Cooper (which also happens to be the name of one of her best buds from school), you see below. It was love and first sight! Cooper got to go to surgery with Sophie, and everything. They have been just about inseperable since.

We are two fills into this round of expansion, and everything is going well. I was worried about doing our first fill at home, since it had been several months since we last did one. Everything went well, and Sophie is now sporting 160ccs in her back expanders and 120 in her belly. The pics below were taken before we did her first fill at home. Each back expander has 120 ccs and the belly has 80. As you can see, she is already expanding quite a bit, so we can only imagine what November and early December will bring us. We are praying for lots of healthy skin! Thanks for checking in with us, and stay tuned for more updates!

Round 2!

2011-09-30T11:32:00.000-05:00

Here we are back in Chicago for Sophie's second round of expanders. She is getting 3 this time. Two on her back, and one on her lower abdomen. Dr. Bauer says the two on her back will be 1000ccs each, while the one on her tummy will be 500. Holy Cow! That is even bigger than the last time! Well, if bigger expanders mean one less surgery, then we will take it!

We will be here until Monday, so please pray that Sophie does as well this time as she has the other two. We are sure she will, but one can never have too many prayers being said!

A Few Videos

2011-09-11T17:37:00.001-05:00

Earlier this year, Sophie started singing "Jesus Loves Me"

while playing the "drums". I tried and tried to record her

performance, but she was having no part of it.

Finally, one day I talked her into letting me

record her singing. As you will see, she obliged, but

when she was done, she was done.

It's so sweet to see Sophie saying the

Pledge of Allegiance. She doesn't realize

it yet, but those will be some of the best words that she

will ever speak. Also, Sophie wants to say the

blessing by herself before meals. It seems like yesterday

that we were just teaching her to say it.

I managed to get Sophie singing all of "God Bless America".

It's amazing what little sponges they are.

Quickly taking everything in.

Last but not least, we have a new cheer for 3K.

It was supposed to be 2 Bits, but it turned into a cheer

for what Sophie loves to do most....play!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sophie!

2011-09-10T09:06:00.025-05:00

On August 23rd, our big girl turned 3!

It is SO hard to believe that she is so big and 3 already! She is changing so much physically and developmentally. I know I told y'all a while back how she could say anything she wanted, but now that comes in complete sentences and much clearer. We have many of the words that you expect from 3K, both good and bad, but we are taking it in stride.

We started out with a birthday party at 3K with all of the kids.

Baba, who is quickly becoming known as "Daddy",

and I took muffins, fruit, and Capri Suns to school for everyone.

All of the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Sophie, and then

Mrs. Cindy got a big birthday hug before everyone went back to the class.

There, Sophie's class sang to her again,

Mrs. Cindy gave Sophie birthday "licks",

and Sophie got to sit in Mrs. Cindy's chair and

open the birthday gift of her choice.

She had a great time, and all of the kids were so sweet!

After a birthday dinner of Sophie's favorites,

fried chicken, corn on the cob, rice, and butter beans,

Sophie opened the rest of her gifts.

She loves music, so she was very excited about the

keyboard that Nana and Pawpaw gave her.

She also loves to play in the water and sand, so

this water/sand table was a big hit too!

We wound up the birthday celebrations with a Kai Lan

pool party with friends and family. Everyone had a great time,

and we appreciate everyone making this birthday such a special one!

Sophie Starts 3K!

2011-08-21T19:56:00.002-05:00

I can't believe that I am writing this....

Sophie started 3K at Monroe Academy, my alma mater, on August 11. She is officially a Volunteer.

She has the cheerleader uniform to prove it!

I wanted to get some pictures of Sophie before we left home, but lately we have been into making some really silly faces when Mama is trying to take pictures,

so we started out like this....

then we got the really big grin....

and I'm not sure exactly what you would call this,

but we finally were able to get a decent picture.

Believe me, the angelic look is very misleading. Ha! Kidding...

She is very sweet, but very mischevious!

Sophie has been really been excited about going to her "new school", as she calls it, and we are so glad! We had no problems getting her ready to go. I, on the other hand, got more and more nervous the closer the time came for us to leave home. I kept telling myself all the way there that I couldn't cry, because if I got upset, then she would get upset. I just about lost it as we were turning into the parking lot, but I held it together. I told Sophie to look at all of the cars and kids. She exclaimed, "Wow! My new school!" We walked in, and I could tell she was a little apprehensive, but we saw a couple of friends from daycare and found something to play with, and off we went! She LOVES it! We are so happy!

Lily, Sophie, and Molly (her daycare buds)

When I ask her what she did at school, she tells me all about playing outside on the playground. She tells me that she has to wait her turn to ride the merry-go-round or the see-saw, and she loves to swing. Mrs.Cindy, Sophie's teacher, found out very quickly how much she LOVES to play outside. This child would live outside if you would let her! I hope she will begin to like school work as much as she does playing outside. If she doesn't, we may be in BIG trouble!

Summer Wind Down

2011-08-21T19:03:00.000-05:00

I know...

I am so far behind posting on the blog. I tried to stay caught up, but we've just been having so much fun enjoying life that the blog took a backseat to everything else. We have enjoyed several trips to the beach, time at the pool, and playing at home. Sophie loves playing in the sand and water at the beach and the pool. At the beginning of the summer, Sophie was a little afraid of the water, but now, she's doing much better. She is still not too keen on going underwater, but every time we go, she gets better and better.

We made a trip to Birmingham for Sophie's one year check-up at the International Adoption Clinic. The wonderful staff there told us that she is doing great and not to come back until Sophie gets ready to start kindergarten. We were SO pleased by this! We thought she was doing great, but it's music to the ears to hear it from the professionals! While we were in Birmingham, we got to see our friends Rhonda and Hannah Grace. We met for lunch, and sweet little Hannah Grace asked us to come along for dessert at the yogurt shop. We were so glad she did! We LOVE yogurt (especially Baba)!!

Sophie has been so excited about going to her "new school". She is going to attend 3K at Monroe Academy, my alma mater. She received a letter in the mail from her teacher telling her how excited she was the Sophie was in her class. Sophie loves to get mail, so this was extra special!

We hope that everyone had a great summer!

What Happened to June?

2011-06-26T13:51:00.074-05:00

Has anyone seen my June? If you find it, please send it back!

I couldn't believe my eyes, when I opened the blog to see that it had been a whole month since I last posted. I don't know where the time has gone, but it flew by. I guess we've just been enjoying our expander and surgery free time so much that it just whizzed right by us.

We have had a very busy month full of family reunions,

trips to the beach,

Father's Day,

playdates,

and just hanging out at home.

Sophie's favorite place to hide ~ under the dining room table.

Sophie is getting to be such a big girl now. She is potty training (I will spare you the photos :-)) and sleeping in her big girl bed. She loves getting ready for bed because we read books to her and then she "reads" to us. Even though she is going to be earlier, we get more cuddle time in bed with her before she falls asleep. We LOVE that!

Sophie's favorite book is Good Night Moon,

and her favorite cartoon is Ni Hao, Kai Lan.

Here she has her "safari" hat on while acting out part of a Kai Lan episode and going shopping. She is such a funny little girl and has quite the active imagination. It is amazing how much Chinese language and culture she is picking up from Kai Lan. It is definitely educational for her and us!

I promised to post some post-surgery pictures of Sophie. Here they are. It is remarkable to me that she has healed so well so quickly. Dr. Bauer is a genius, and we are so thrilled with the job he has done so far.

We have scheduled Sophie's next round of surgeries. We go September 30 for another round of expanders, and then have another surgery to remove part of the nevus on December 15. I know it sounds crazy to plan surgery so close to Christmas, but having it then means that she will be back to full speed by Christmas, and it will give her all of Christmas vacation to recoup before school starts back in January.

Thanks for checking in with us. We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!

Rio

2011-05-22T17:37:00.000-05:00

While in Chicago last week, we tried to find things to pass the time and keep Sophie (and us) occupied. On Sunday, we decided to go to a movie. Sophie had never been to a movie before, and we weren't entirely sure how long she would sit for one, if at all. I quickly searched online to find an age appropriate movie. Rio was the only movie available at the time. I watched the trailer for it, and it seemed cute enough, so we decided to go for it.

We arrived at the theater and made our way to the ticket counter and paid for the tickets. As soon as we began to walk off, the ticket guy pushed 3 pair of 3-D glasses into Bo's hand. I was shocked! I had totally missed that this was a 3-D movie! Bo and I looked at each other like "This won't last long because Sophie will never keep the 3-D glasses on for the movie...", but we had already paid for the tickets so we made our way to the theater. We made it in just in time for the movie to begin. We put on our glasses and helped Sophie with her's and settled into our seats, which were conveniently located near the back of the theater just in case we needed to make a quick exit. :)

Well, I am here to tell you that we were completely wrong! Not only did Sophie watch the whole movie, she kept her glasses on the entire time!

We will definitely be going to another movie very soon!

The Most Special Mother's Day Gifts

2011-05-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

During the many Mother's Days that came and went while we waited for Sophie, I often imagined all of the sweet Mother's Day gifts that Sophie would make for me one day. On the Thursday before Mother's Day when I picked Sophie up from school, she was holding a little gift wrapped in tissue paper that had a tag on it that read, "To: Mom From: Sophie". I couldn't wait to open it, but knew that I had to wait until that very special day. The next two days passed very slowly, as I walked by the little gift numerous times. Finally the day arrived, and look what I found inside!

A sweet MOM magnet for the refrigerator

and a precious card that Sophie made for me

with the sweetest poem and Sophie's handprint inside.

The poem is a little difficult to read in the picture, so I will post it below.

Thank You, Mom

Thank you for reading me stories

And taking care of me.

Thank you for tying my shoes

And putting bandages on my knee.

Thank you for tucking me into bed

And kissing me goodnight.

Thank you so much for all your hugs

And holding my hand so tight.

Thank you for being my mommy

And that's not all I have to say.

Thank you so much for all you do

And have a Happy Mother's Day!!!

Thank you so much, Sophie, for the great Mother's Day gifts!! I love them and you so very much!!

Meeting Members of Our Nevus Family

2011-05-16T15:06:00.000-05:00

While in Chicago for Sophie's surgery, we had the opportunity to meet other Nevus families from various parts of the US. On Thursday, we met the Nagel's for breakfast at our hotel. Beth and I met on Nevus Outreach. They are from South Dakota and their son, Sully, had had expander insertion surgery on Monday. This was his second round of expanders. He is such a cutie and a little trooper!

Sophie and Sully

While at breakfast with the Nagel's, there was another Nevus family from Vermont having breakfast, as well. Their 10 month old little girl has a scalp nevus and was having her first round of expanders removed and nevus excision on Thursday. I pray everything went well for them.

Today while at Dr. Bauer's office for Sophie's checkup, we met a family from Washington, D.C. Their 6 month old daughter has a scalp nevus, and they were their for their first expansion. Mom was very anxious, and understandably so. I hope that she was encouraged to see how well Sophie has done and that they have a complication free expansion and surgery.

After Sophie's appointment, we met the Melton's, Adam, Christine, Katie, and Josh, from Phoenix, Arizona for lunch. Christine and I met on Nevus Outreach. Their little boy, Josh, has a nevus like Sophie's. He had surgery to insert his second round of expanders on Monday. He had many complications after his first round and never even got to have an expansion, but Dr. Bauer still managed to remove part of his nevus anyway. I keep telling y'all how amazing Dr. Bauer is! We are praying for great, problem free expansions and healthy skin for Josh and his family. We are looking forward to meeting more nevus families!

Josh and Sophie at lunch

So sweet!

Nevus moms with our nevus babies

The Reveal.

2011-05-16T14:28:00.000-05:00

We are so excited to share the first before and after pictures of Sophie with everyone! Dr. Bauer is amazing. Simply amazing! Sophie is doing so well after her surgery and is just about completely back to normal. This is great for her, but not so much for us, as she is supposed to have quiet play for the next 3 weeks while the skin flaps adhere to her body and the incisions heal. We are going to have our hands full! Sophie was jumping up and down in the doctor's office today. Mim, one of Dr. Bauer's wonderful nurses, said that she was so glad that Dr. Bauer was not there to see it!

In the picture below you can see that Dr. Bauer was able to remove the nevus from Sophie's lower back and to a point below her waist.

Unfortunately, I did not get any side view pictures of Sophie before the surgery, but in the top picture in the collage below, you can tell how much the nevus came up on her sides. Post-surgery, she has clear, nevus free skin on both sides.

Once we are home and Sophie no longer has the drains, I will take some more pictures of her standing. This will help to see her sides better.

Where do we go from here? Sophie will have the drains at least until Friday, or until the incisions stop draining. We will do dressing changes daily and she will be wrapped in an ace bandage for the next 2 1/2 - 3 weeks. The ace bandages help hold the skin flaps in place so that they can heal properly. Lastly will be the most challenging part of the healing process, keeping Sophie quiet for the next 2 1/2 - 3 weeks. Like most 2 years olds, quiet and still is not a normal thing for her.

We would like to thank you all again for your prayers. They were certainly felt, and we could not have made it through this first round without them. Please continue to remember us and all of other families (there are many) who are going through this with their children (some as young as 6 months old) and other family members. They will be greatly appreciated!

I will close with a few pictures of Sophie before and after surgery.

Excited about the stickers, crayons, and coloring books from the hospital staff.

On the "Happy Juice"!

Sporting her "no-no's" and opening her cards after surgery.

That sweet smile is back 24 hours post-op!

Tip-Toe Through The Tulips

2011-05-16T13:15:00.001-05:00

The day before Sophie's surgery, we decided to tour the Chicago Botanical Gardens. We had heard how beautiful the tulips are this time of year, and we knew that this would be the last pretty, and warm, day that we would have, so we decided to take advantage of it. It was hot, but beautiful. If you are ever in the area, you have to check it out!

(click on the collage to enlarge it)

It's Surgery Time!

2011-05-12T14:07:00.000-05:00

This is it y'all! Our last update before Sophie has surgery tomorrow. I can't believe how fast the past 10 weeks have flown by, and we have been so blessed. We have had no complications, the skin over Sophie's expanders is very healthy and looks great, and Sophie has done terrific! We are both excited and anxious about tomorrow. Excited about seeing the results of our own medical miracle, but anxious about Sophie having to be put to sleep and what lies ahead on the other side of her surgery. Please continue to pray for us, and especially our sweet Sophie, tomorrow and in the days ahead. We appreciate each one so very much!

725ccs in each expander

Stay tuned for the big reveal!!

Beach Time

2011-05-12T13:49:00.000-05:00

The last weekend in April was the Smith family reunion. For many years, the reunion has been held at a nearby state park, but this year, we decided to hold it in Orange Beach. This was a great decision, and everyone had such a great time that we are going to have it there again next year!

Sophie enjoyed swinging

and walking on the pier with Aunt "Brenna" (Brenda)

and her friend "Kebin" (Kevin).

The weather that weekend was perfect for the beach,

so we couldn't pass up an opportunity to build some sand castles,

which is Sophie's new favorite thing to do.

We all had a great time,

and I'm sure there are many sand castles to be built in our near future.

Finger-licking good

2011-05-12T13:47:00.000-05:00

Easter Weekend

2011-05-08T16:27:00.000-05:00

It has been a few weeks since my last post so it's time do some catching up. Easter was quite a busy weekend, as most are these days. On Friday, our newest cousin, Carter, and his mom and dad were home for the weekend, so we went to visit and get some new baby loving. She thought Carter was so sweet and really liked holding his hand.

On Saturday, our niece, Amy, turned 16! I still can't believe it! Of course we had to have a celebration, so we started out by blowing bubbles.

After which we had the birthday girl don her Sweet 16 tiara for pictures before diving into the awesome cake and ice cream.

The Birthday Girl

Here she is with her big sis, Emily.

We had to have a picture with Nana and Pawpaw.

When Emily and Amy are around, Sophie thinks she is one of the big girls too. She had to have her ice cream on the couch by Emily. Can you say "Cheese!"?

On Sunday morning, the Easter Bunny made a stop by our house.

Look at all of the goodies that he brought Sophie on her first Easter!

She made out like a bandit!

She went through every egg to see what was inside.

Needless to say, her breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs and jelly beans!

After church, lunch, and a nap, we hunted Easter eggs.

Sophie had a blast.

She ran then entire time. There was no competition.

She was just excited!

Our friend, Lauren, came down to hunt eggs with us.

Look at all of the eggs they found!

We are still celebrating a lot of firsts with Sophie, and each one is so precious to us.

Memories we will hold on to forever.

We love you, Sophie!

2 Steps Forward ~ 1 Step Back

2011-04-20T21:32:00.000-05:00

Sunday afternoon, we perfomed Sophie's 8th expansion, giving her a total of 720cc's in each expander. She did great with the expansion, with the help of our friends Kai Lan and big suckers. Now the we are nearing the end of the expansion process (Wow! It seems so strange saying that.), Sophie's expanders are not getting as soft between expansions, so I was not sure if I would be able to get 120cc's this time. I knew it would be great if we could, but I also knew that I had to be very careful to not overfill and cut off the blood supply to the cappilaries in the skin. The expanders were really tight, but we had no problems. Or so I thought.

After the fill, I got dinner ready, and we all sat down to eat. Sophie ate a few bites and then got this look on her face like something was wrong and told me she was done eating. She did not get a really good nap and had been eating a sucker, so we thought she was tired and not hungry. She got down a played a little, but then came to me and asked to get in my lap. She did this off and on for a while, which is not like her at all. I gave her some Advil to see if that would help, and then she started getting whiny. We still thought that maybe she was just tired, so I gave her a bath and got her ready for bed, thinking that she would go on to sleep. It got worse.

She started getting really fussy and couldn't be still. We went to bed and let her get in the bed with us, hoping that she would doze off and everything would be okay the next morning. She woke up every 30 minutes or so crying. I gave her a does of Tylenol with codeine thinking that would help. It didn't, and the crying got worse. This rocked on until midnight, when we decided that we needed to take some of the saline out of Sophie's expanders. I applied the emla cream and set the alarm on my phone to wake us in an hour, not that we were asleep. Finally, 1:15am rolled around and we were able to remove 60cc's of saline from each expander. That did the trick, and she was out like a light.

I knew that we could remove some saline if need be, but never expected to have to do it. Boy was I glad that we did! (And I'm positive she was too!)

Sophie with 660cc's of saline in her expanders

Sophie's surgery is scheduled for May 13th. Only 3 more fills to go!

Just A Spoonful of Sugar

2011-04-10T20:01:00.001-05:00

makes the medicine go down,

The medicine go doowwn,

Medicine go down.

I'm sure some of you out there remember that song. Well, there's definitely truth in the words to this song.
The past couple of expansions we have done have been less than relaxed, to say the least. Sophie was not in pain, but very anxious as we applied the lidocaine and then as we removed it to prepare for the expansion. We tried lots of things to distract her, but let's face it, a two-year-old is a lot smarter than a lot of us give them credit for. You have to be really, really creative to keep them distracted week after week.

I've been talking to different people trying to come up with new ways to distract her and new ways to do her expansion so that she is more comfortable. I decided that we would try her lying on her tummy, and it turns out that this was a wise decision. With the help of a BIG sucker that she received at Wyatt and Bailey's birthday/Easter party yesterday and a surprise gift of a new Kai Lan dvd, tonight's expansion was a breeze! I am so relieved. It is tough to have to put your child through this, but especially when they are NOT happy about it at all.

We are now up to 600 ccs in each expander and surgery is about 4 weeks away. Sophie's expanders are getting SO BIG, but that is a wonderful thing! The bigger they get, the more nevus can be removed! I sent another update to Dr Bauer this week, and he is still pleased with the progress. We are beginning to see pictures of other little ones who have been through expansion and are now having their surgeries, and I have to say that we are VERY excited about the prospective outcome for Sophie! All of this will be so worth it!

I will post some more pictures in a few days. I decided I wouldn't push my luck with the camera tonight.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers. We appreciate them so very much!

Progress

2011-03-31T07:21:00.000-05:00

We have done 2 more fills at home now, and Sophie is up to 360cc's in each expander. We are still trying to learn the tricks of making sure the Emla cream stays in place over the ports (tape works the best) and making sure Sophie stays distracted, especially when I access the port. She is very anxious during this time, but I pray that this will get better as we continue to do the fills. On a positive note, I was able to get 80 cc's on our last injection, and am hopeful that I can get 100 on our fill this week.

Below are pictures of Sophie from the last two fills, the first with 280 cc's and the last with 360 cc's. You can see a marked difference between the two. She is still tolerating them well and does not complain about them. I hear she shows them to everyone at school, and she tells me that she LOVES her "spanders". We are trying to make this process as normal as possible for her, so it is music to my ears that loves her "spanders"!

I sent the first four pictures below to Dr. Bauer and his staff for an update. They say everything looks great and for us to keep on keeping on!

280 cc's

360 cc's

One Year Ago

2011-03-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

this very special little girl walked into our lives and changed us forever.

Sophie, you have no idea how much we love you. You mean more to us than we ever thought possible, and we are so thankful that God allowed us to be your parents. We look forward to many years of making memories and watching you grow into the person that God plans for you to be.

Happy 1st Gotcha Day!

With All of Our Love,

Mama and Baba

Our Little Cowgirl

2011-03-27T06:51:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T06:44:00.000-05:00

Second Expander Fill

2011-03-14T20:42:00.000-05:00

We survived Sophie's second expander fill (which was the first one we have done at home) on Saturday. Thank goodness for Emla cream, which is used to numb the skin over the ports on the expanders. We injected 60 cc's into each expander with 3 suckers and no tears! Yea!

I did find out one thing the hard way, Emla cream wears off after two hours for Sophie. We were told by Sophie's doctors and nurses to apply the Emla an hour before the fill. Well, I saw on the Nevus Outreach Yahoo group where others said to wait two hours. My thought was, if one hour works then two should be better. Logical, right? Wrong!

After finishing the fill of the first expander, I moved around to the other side to begin the second expander fill. I started to insert the needle and she MOVED! No cries. Just movement. I froze. I waited a minute. Still no tears, so I thought, "Maybe it was just the pressure she was moving away from". I tried again. Same thing, and a whine too. Oh, I could have died right there on the spot. I was so nervous already that I wouldn't do it right or that I would hurt her, and I tried to stay calm throughout the whole process because I knew she would pick up on the fact that I was upset. I also knew that if this was a bad experience that it would set the tone for the other 10-11 fills that we have ahead of us. No pressure, right?

After the second time she felt the needle stick, I told Bo that we would just stop, apply more Emla cream, wait an hour and try again. We did. The Emla worked, and we had a successful second try. Whew! I was so relieved! I am so glad to have that behind us now!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. Keep it up because we have 10-11 more fills to go!

Sophie with 220 cc's in each expander

Documenting the Process

2011-03-12T13:21:00.000-06:00

When I first blogged about Sophie's nevus removal process here, I explained how I wanted to document this for Sophie since she would not remember much of it. Now that the expanders are in, and we have started filling them, I wanted to post a before and two after pictures, just to get us started.

Sophie before

Sophie after first expanders are put in and filled with 160cc's each,

120 during surgery and 40 during the first fill

Back view with 160cc's in each expanders

Stay tuned for a post and pictures after the first fill at home.

Finally Some Fun in Chicago!

2011-03-12T12:46:00.000-06:00

We made another trip (yes, another!) trip to Chicago last week. Sophie went for a check-up and for us to learn how to fill her expanders. Dr. Bauer likes for the first fill to be done by his staff to ensure that everything is working properly, and he also uses this as a teaching opportunity for us to learn, observe, and participate in the expansion process since we will be doing this from home until May, when Sophie has her first nevus excision surgery. It was quite unnerving to stick a needle into my child, but with the help of Emla cream, she hardly noticed it at all. Thank goodness!!!

While in Chicago this time, we were able to have a little fun. We visited Kohl Children's Museum and had a blast! It was very busy there. Several schools from the area must have been on a field trip there that day.

They had an art room where the craft of the day was painting a self-portrait. Sophie was a little too young to do the craft, so we opted to play with the shapes on the light table. Each of the pieces has magnets on the side, so she had a lot of fun creating different things out of the shapes.

Then there was a room that was all about water. Here Sophie is watching jelly fish being pushed up to the top of the tank by air bubbles.

And here she was making a ball go up in a tube using pressurized water.

We moved on to the music room. She LOVES music, so this was her favorite. She plucked the strings on a guitar to hear the sound,

and then played the cymbals, the bongo, and shook the tamberene.

I think she would have stayed

in this room forever.

This contraption reminded me of the game Mouse Trap. I know I'm dating myself, but I'm sure there are some of you out there that remember this game!

Finally, we made it to the library where Sophie played on the "puter", as she likes to call it, and we read some books.

There were many other rooms (grocery store, veterinary clinic, daycare, etc.) there that we didn't get to visit because it was so crowded and it was almost lunch time. We will definitely be coming back here, so we visit them next time!

First Round of Expanders Are In

2011-03-07T20:46:00.001-06:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to post an update on Sophie. I really thought I would have time to post while we were in Chicago the first time, but I was so wrong! Things were a bit more hectic than I anticipated, but that's okay. All was good in the end, and that is what is most important.

We made it to Chicago without any issues this time. The weather was beautiful, and our flight was right on time. There is something to be said about flying from Pensacola on a Saturday. There was hardly anyone in security, which made this trip a breeze!

Monday rolled around all too quickly. Thankfully Sophie was Dr. Bauer's third case that day, so we didn't have to be at the hospital until 7:45. We got Sophie changed into her cute little hospital gown and answered all of the questions you have to answer prior to having surgery.

While waiting on the "happy juice" to be delivered, Sophie and I colored, which is one of her favorite things to do these days. She knows her colors, for the most part, and we take advantage of all of the opportunities to ask what color everything is.

Sophie's surgery began at 9:15 and lasted around 1 1/2 hours. Everything went as expected, and she did great. She came out of surgery with 3 incisions, 2-750 cc expanders, 2 drains, and a pair of "no-no's". She did so well in recovery that we were moved to a room within an hour.

For those of you who are wondering what "no-no's" are, they are the things on Sophie's arms in the photo below that prevent her from bending her arms at the elbows and pulling at drains or anything else she shouldn't be pulling on. She was okay with them for a while, especially when Baba was blowing bubbles for her.

But she is very independent, and nothing would do but for her to blow the bubbles herself, with the "no-no's" on. That was a difficult task, but she managed to blow a few bubbles anyway!

After a few hours of being in a room, we were moved across the hall to a bigger one that had a regular hospital bed, a captain's bed, a recliner, and a rocking chair. You can see here that Sophie was very comfy and relaxed in her big bed. The room was a much more comfortable room and easier to maneuver around in. We really felt like we were in a hotel. The hospital room had a big screen tv and Netflix on-demand. It also had room service, and the food was delicious. I know you are all thinking that we were just starving to death, and anything would have tasted good to us. I promise that was not the case. We ate the food 3 different times, and it was very good every time.

On Tuesday afternoon, we were discharged from the hospital. Sophie slept really well that night, but was quite sore the next day. Who wouldn't be, right? We alternated Advil and Tylenol to keep her as comfortable as possible. She was such a little trooper. We were really dreading the flight home on Wednesday, but she did great. She flew home in my lap and then rode in her carseat from Pensacola home. We were very surprised, but all of the nurses had told us that each day would get better and it has.

We are so thankful!

Chicago - Take 2

2011-02-18T21:08:00.000-06:00

Well, here we are once again packing for Chicago. The weather outlook for tomorrow looks beautiful, as it has this whole week, so we are more hopeful that we will make it to there this time. My boss told me this afternoon that he saw where there was another snow storm brewing on the west coast. I'm hoping he was joking around with me, but if not, I'm not too worried as long as we can get there. Our hotel is only 5 miles from the hospital, so I'm sure we can get there with or without the snow.

When our flights were canceled a couple of weeks ago, and thus Sophie's surgery, you all were so great to encourage us to look for the positive in the cancellation. We were disappointed, but not upset, as we knew that God did not intend for us to go to Chicago as originally planned. Last week while I was in Vancouver, it was revealed to us why God said, "Wait". Sophie developed an ear infection. This could have been detrimental to the whole expansion process if she had developed it after the expanders were in, so we were ver thankful that we had not yet had the procedure and had time to get antibiotics to fight the infection prior to the next surgery. Nothing is coincidental. Everything happens for a reason.

We found out today that Sophie's procedure is at 9:15 Monday morning. Please continue to pray for all of us, and especially Sophie. She has no idea what is about to happen to her. It was less that an year ago that her little world was turned upside down when we traveled to China to adopt her. She has adapted just beautifully, and we are confident that she will handle this just as well.

One Word Wednesday

2011-02-16T20:19:00.000-06:00

Busted!

New Surgery Dates

2011-02-07T19:55:00.000-06:00

We now have new dates for Sophie's surgery. She will have expanders placed on February 21 and, if all goes well, excision on May 13. Please continue to pray for all of us as we begin to prepare again and that the weather will cooperate!

Or So We Thought....

2011-02-04T21:00:00.002-06:00

What a crazy few days it has been! The chaos ensued when on Monday talk began about a snow storm that was moving to the east and what a snow producer it was going to be. My hope was that it would move on through quickly and would be out of the way by the time Wednesday rolled around for us to catch our flight. It moved on through, but, in the meantime, dumped a lot of snow in its wake. Chicago got so much snow that the schools closed for the first time in 12 years, O'Hare closed for a day and a half, and Lake Shore Drive turned into a parking lot. Needless to say, when I found on Tuesday that O'Hare was closed and had canceled all flights, I began scurrying around trying to get us another flight. After many phone calls and a couple of panic attacks, I finally managed to get all 3 of us on one flight leaving Thursday evening. All was good.

We packed and left yesterday morning around 10am. As we drove north, it began to rain some and was really cold. By the time we got to Prattville, the ice was beginning to build on the windshield wipers and side mirrors of the car. The closer we got to Birmingham, the worse it got. It began sleeting and by the time we grabbed a quick bite of lunch and got back on the interstate, it was pouring down sleet, which quickly turned into snow before we got to downtown Birmingham. We saw several wrecks and people sliding on the overpasses. It was a mess! Thankfully, we left home in plenty of time, so driving 20 mph on I-20 did not delay us in the least.

We made it through security with only one bag having to be searched. Seems Elmo caused a little scare, but he was quickly released and we headed for the gate. With a couple of hours to spare, we relaxed and waited. The flight was showing to be a few minutes behind, but we knew it was in the air. We thought we were home free. The flight landed, and we began gathering our things to begin boarding the plane. That is until the lady working the gate announced that the flight was grounded until further notice and that they were waiting on dispatch to tell them whether our flight would go. I overheard her telling someone about there being ice on the landing gear. I don't know about you, but I like landing gear, and I want it to work when it's supposed to. I decided then that I would be happy to go home if they canceled the flight. Thankfully, that was what happened. We quickly gathered up our things and headed home.

It was a long day that turned out no where near what it was supposed to, but that's okay. We are safe and sound at home, and that is what is most important. So what happens next? We are working with the surgeon now to set a new date for Sophie's surgery. We are hoping to have it squared away next week.

Thanks to everyone for all of your prayers. Please keep them coming and stay tuned for our next attempt at getting to Chicago!

Leaving On A Jet Plane..... Again!

2011-01-30T18:16:00.008-06:00

No, not to China this time, but to Chicago! I wish I could say it was for vacation, but it's for Sophie to have surgery. For those of you who do not know, Sophie was born with congenital giant nevus(CGN). It starts on her lowerback and covers her whole bottom and wraps around her legs. She also has smaller nevi, or satellites, on various parts of her body. We are traveling to Chicago to begin the process of having Sophie's CGN removed by a pediatric plastic surgeon, Dr. B, who specializes in nevus removal.

There are different options available for nevus removal. Sophie is having hers removed through tissue expansion and nevus excision, which are two different surgeries. Basically, in the first surgery, which we are having on Friday, tissue expanders are placed under the "good", i.e. nevus free skin. Over the next 11 to 12 weeks, we will gradually fill and expand the tissue expanders, and thus Sophie's skin. After the expanders are completely filled and expanded, Sophie will have the second surgery to remove part of her nevus, and then the expanded skin will be pulled down and reattached where the nevus was removed. We will go through this two surgery process 3 times. I know this sounds like a lot for a little one to have to go through, and it is, but we have a great support system in our friends, family, and church, as well as other nevus families who are going through, or have been through, the same thing.

You may wonder why I am sharing something so private with everyone who may read this blog. My goal is two-fold: (1)to make people more aware of CGN, as I'm sure most of you have probably never heard of it since it only occurs in approximately one of every 500,000 births and (2) to document this new journey for Sophie, as I'm thankful she will probably not remember very much, if any, of this. You may also be wondering if Sophie is having any problems because of her nevus. The answer is no, and we love her and think that she is perfect just the way she is, but we know that as she gets older the potential exists for there to be psychological and social challenges for her if we choose not to have her CGN removed.

So follow along with us on this new leg of our journey, if you will. We ask that you pray for Sophie, specifically that her pain will be manageable and that there will be no complications. Pray for Bo and myself as we anxiously anticipate what lies ahead. Pray also for the surgeon and all of the healthcare providers who will be working with Sophie and that we all have safe travels.

I plan to update the blog from Chicago, so stay tuned!

And Last, But Certainly Not Least...

2011-01-24T20:43:00.003-06:00

we celebrated Christmas with Lee, Regina, and the kids. We drove up on Sunday after Christmas and had lunch and spent some time everyone. The kids all played and had a good time. Brianne and Sophie did each other's makeup and nails, had a picnic, and cooked in the kitchen, with Wyatt's help, of course. He's getting to be such a big boy that he wants in on all of the fun too! Bailey and Sophie spent some time playing with Bailey's toys on her exersaucer. I don't think Sophie had ever seen one and was mesmerized by it! Bailey has become quite the ham. She flashes the sweetest little smile every time a camera gets near hear! Tyler played with everyone. He's so good with all of the little kids. He lets them play with whatever they want and is always willing to join in their fun. It is amazing to watch all of our children and grandchildren grow and change so much! They are all precious to us, and we love each and every one very, very much!!

Christmas Day

2011-01-16T13:48:00.008-06:00

Christmas Day started out very early. Not because Sophie was so excited about Santa Claus coming to our house, but because Mama and Baba were so excited to finally be celebrating this day with Sophie! Sophie's Nana, Pawpaw, aunts, uncle, and cousins were very excited about Sophie's first Christmas too! So much that they all wanted to be here when Sophie got up to see what Santa had brought her. Sophie didn't quite get the whole Santa bringing toys thing, but she really liked the fact that he did!

After breakfast, we went to my parents' house for lunch with my mom's side of the family. Sophie was so excited she would not even think about eating lunch, or breakfast for that matter. She just wanted to play! My mom's sisters and their families were so sweet to buy her gifts. She received a new doll from Aunt Bot and Uncle Mac,

a new camera from Aunt Bebe,

and some new Melissa & Doug puzzles from Aunt Taffy. She has loved playing with them all.

Aside from all of the toys, Sophie's most favorite thing to do was play with Lily, who is Emily and Amy's King Charles spaniel. Sophie used to be afraid of her, but now, she wants Lily in her lap all of the time. I know Lily think she has died and gone to the bad place every time she sees Sophie!

On Christmas night, we had our time with my immediate family. We had a very light dinner and then dove back in to the present opening for the final time. Sophie had a great time helping everyone open their gifts. She would run from one person to the next, assisting them in ripping the bow and wrapping paper from their gifts, after which she would yell, "Wow!". It was so much fun to watch her reaction to all that was going on.

To think of what her life was like a year ago and what it is like now is baffling. So much has changed in her life in 9 months, and she has dealt with it all very well. We are all so blessed to have her in our lives, and we are so thankful that God entrusted her to our care. We know without a shadow of a doubt that she is the child that He always entended for us to have.

We love you so much, Sophie!

Christmas Eve

2011-01-01T14:01:00.011-06:00

On Christmas Eve, we started out with lunch at my parents' house. It was nice that we were able to spend the day at home to finish decorating (I know. I know. It's crazy to still be decorating on Christmas Eve.) and do some baking. At 5:00, we went to church for a candlelight Christmas service. I love going every year. It's such a special service, and it allows me to relect on the real reason we are celebrating this time of year.

After the service and a quick bite of dinner, Sophie and I began to prepare to bake cookies for Santa. Sophie had never helped me bake anything before, and I had been looking forward to this night for so many years, so this was a real treat for both of us! Earlier in the year, I bought us matching just for this occasion, so we donned them and began baking our cookies!

Sophie saying, "Hurry, Mama. Hurry!"

Mixing up the dough

Big girl helping Mama stir

Doing a great job!

She wanted to get her hands in there SO bad!

So proud!

The finished product complete with glass of milk and a note to Santa!

(Right after this she started crying saying, "My cookies!". I guess she didn't want Santa to have a snack after all!

We ended the night by Bo reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to us. Sophie, of course, had to have a turn reading us her version of the book. I love the way she "reads" her books and makes up her own stories! Oh, and we couldn't forget to feed Santa's reindeer! (Sorry, there are no pictures. I was videoing.)

It was all so sweet, and made for such a memorable night!

Christmas 2010 - Part II

2011-01-01T13:23:00.015-06:00

The second part of our Christmas celebration was spent with my Dad's side of the family. My parents hosted this get together, and we had a great time eating and visiting. As expected, Sophie was the main attraction since she is currently the only little one we have in the family, but that will change in another month or so. My cousin, Josh and his wife, Kym, are expecting a little boy in February, so Sophie will have another little one to play with next year!

My dad's brothers, sisters, and their families, were so sweet to bring Sophie gifts. She had a great time ripping the bows and paper from the packages, and she quickly learned how to dig through the tissue paper in the gift bags to find what was hiding inside.

Sophie opening her gift from Uncle Aaron, Aunt Jackie, and family

This bow won't come off!

What could be inside?

Oh, there it is!! It's a puzzle !

What could be in here?

Oh my goodness! What was it?

It is an Alabama monkey!

He's so soft, Sophie. Don't you want to play with him?

"I not want it.", she said.

Pawpaw trying to convince Sophie that the monkey is sweet and fun to play with!

As you probably gathered from the pictures, Sophie is still a little hesitant with new stuffed animals. She was VERY uncomfortable with them when we first met her and for a few months after we got home. We have found that if we leave them out where she can see them and warm up to them at her own pace she will be playing with them in no time. This was the case with the monkey that she has named "Monk". It took a day or so, but she she is having a great time playing with him. Sophie loves to take him by his long arms or legs and swing him. She thinks it's hilarious!

Thanks to everyone for the sweet gifts! Sophie really likes them!

Christmas 2010 - Part I

2011-01-01T13:01:00.010-06:00

Our Christmas celebration started on December 17th, when we traveled to Daphne to have dinner with Michael, Jessica, Merrill, Tim, Michele, Nicholas, and Anna Kay at Michael and Jessica's. We enjoyed delicious soups that were perfect for the cool night and a wonderful pecan pie cheesecake, as well as other sweets, that Jessica made for dessert. The kids were so excited about opening gifts that none of them really ate any dinner. I'm sure none of you are too surprised by that!

Before we starting opening gifts, we managed to get the kids to sit for a few quick photos. It looked like we had a strobe light in the room with three cameras flashing!

(l-r) Anna Kay, Sophie, Merrill, and Nicholas

The first gifts being opened

Jessica was so sweet to help Sophie open her gift of Elmo dvds

Nick with his Zhu-zhu pet!

Merrill with her blanket and bottle for her Bitty Baby

Princess Anna Kay ready to style some hair

We really had a great time with everyone and hope that we can get together again very soon!

Thank you Michael, Jessica, and Merrill for having us!

Our First Christmas Card with Sophie

2010-12-26T20:25:00.004-06:00

Merry Christmas!

Thank you to Uncle Aaron and Aunt Jackie at Aaron White Photography for doing such a great job!

Santa Came to School!

2010-12-26T19:33:00.008-06:00

On December 15, Sophie had her Christmas party at school. Earlier in the month they painted the cutest t-shirts. They all wore them to the party.

Sophie sporting her Christmas shirt

When I went to get Sophie one day, I asked the teachers if Santa was coming to the party. When they told me that he was, I immediately began telling them of Sophie's terrible run in with Santa at a shopping center. They assured me that they would not push Sophie to sit in Santa's lap if she was afraid, but we were all hopeful that she would want to sit in Santa's lap after seeing all of her friends do it. Well, the day of the party arrived, and when I picked Sophie up that afternoon, I asked her if she saw Santa and if she sat in his lap. She told me that she did, but truthfully, I thought it was a likely story. Boy was I shocked to find the picture below in Sophie's bag of goodies from the party!

Our very first picture with Santa

Sophie's First Christmas Parade

2010-12-26T19:08:00.005-06:00

On December 9th, we went to Jackson to go to the city's Christmas parade with family. We missed the local one because Sophie and I went out of town. It was quite a chilly night, which really made it seem much more like Christmas than we are accustomed to. We sat in my uncle's truck, where it was nice and warm, while we waited on the parade to arrive. Sophie loved catching beads and candy and waiving at everyone as they passed by. Thank you to Aunt Bot and Uncle Mac for having us over for the parade and dinner! We had a great time!

Special Little Girls

2010-12-26T18:30:00.003-06:00

(L-R: The Gallahues, Sophie, and the Whitneys)

When we first started the international adoption process, we were assigned to a travel group by our adoption agency, based on the date that our paperwork was logged-in in China. This meant that when the time came, we would all go to China together to get our babies. As it turns out, things did not go quite as we thought, and all of us traveled at different times, even years apart, for some of us. Early this month, Sophie and I traveled to Fairhope to the annual gift market that our original adoption agency has, and we were able to see two of the families that were in our travel group. It was great to finally see our children together, and I hope that we will all continue to stay in touch, although our daily lives are much, much busier now.

One of Sophie's Favorites

2010-12-26T18:13:00.003-06:00

When Sophie wants to do something, EVERYONE participates!

IAC and the Birmingham Zoo

2010-12-23T07:29:00.004-06:00

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Sophie had a checkup appointment at the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham, so we decided to spend the weekend before there to get some shopping done. On Sunday, the weather was beautiful, so we decided to take a trip to the zoo. We had such a good time. Sophie was a little afraid of the chickens running loose, but what child would not be afraid of that! Sophie also rode a carousel for the first time. Sunday night, we met our friends, Mike, Rhonda, and Hannah Grace, for dinner. We enjoyed spending time with them and watching our girls play together. They are both SO precious!

Sophie's appointment at the IAC went great! She's still on target with development and is currently having no problems. She is getting so big and gaining weight. We will go back again in 6 months. Wow! That means she's been home with us almost a year now! Where has the time gone?

Our Little Turkey!

2010-11-18T20:35:00.004-06:00

Sophie had her first Thanksgiving party at school yesterday. When I got home from work, she was sporting her new turkey hat. It was so cute! The tailfeathers are made of cut-outs of her little hands. How precious!

I'm loving all of the artwork and projects that she comes home with from school, especially the one below.

How cute is this!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Our Day in Court

2010-11-10T21:05:00.008-06:00

Sophie has been home with us 8 months, and she's already had to go to court! It was for a good reason, though. It was to finalize her adoption in our state. It was painless and took all of 15 minutes. Most of that was taking pictures! We are so happy that we were able to have our friend, Judge Greg Norris, preside over this very special court appearance. He and Terry had prayed very hard for us and Sophie during our adoption process, so it was so special for him to be a part of it now. Thanks, Greg! And, Sophie, this better be your first and last time to be in court, young lady! :)

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-06T17:32:00.016-05:00

This was Sophie's first Halloween. She dressed up like a ladybug, if you hadn't already figured it out. She had so much fun.

We started out trick-or-treating at Aunt Emily and Uncle JW's house...

and then we went to see Aunt Margaret

and Uncle Billy.

We then went see Aunt Judy and Uncle Larry, where Sophie had to choose which ring she wanted. Decisions, decisions......

Here Sophie is posing with Aunt Judy and Uncle Larry. From here, we made our way back to Peterman, where we attended our first hayride..after trick-or-treating a little more, of course.

Here is Aunt Bot getting ready to fill Sophie's pumpkin, while Nana waits her turn.

Sophie had a great time running all over the yard, as anywhere outside is her favorite place to be.

Here, Sophie is playing musical hay bales with Nana.

And a second turn with Aunt Bebe.

After a delicious dinner of soups and sandwiches, perfect for a crisp Fall evening, we went on the hayride. Sophie was a little apprehensive, since she had never ridden outside in the dark, but Baba held on to her tight and made sure she was good and warm. We had a great time celebrating our first Halloween as a family, and we are looking forward to many more.

Sophie's Baby Dedication

2010-11-06T17:05:00.007-05:00

Sunday, October 24, was Sophie's baby dedication. Brother Terry Harden, who is an adoptive parent himself, officiated the service. It was such a special day for us; one that we had waited for for a very long time. Many, many Sundays I sat in church wondering what it would feel like to stand before the church to dedicate our daughter to the Lord. It was so much better than I ever imagined.

We are constantly in awe of the fact that God blessed us with such a special daughter.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-20T18:27:00.002-05:00

1-2-3 Imagine

2010-10-18T20:45:00.019-05:00

Last Sunday, Bo and I took Sophie to see Sesame Street Live. She loves to watch Sesame Street every night before going to bed, and she knows most of the characters by name, but we weren't real sure about how she would like seeing them in real life or if she would even sit long enough to enjoy it. I think this picture speaks for itself...

This was right after seeing this...

Sophie loves Big Bird, and she kept saying, "Wow!". It was precious!

Bert and Abby Cadabby were there.

And so were Ernie, Elmo, and Telle.

We counted with the Count!

And went Surfin' USA with the whole gang!

Sophie was mesmerized.

And had a great time!

After a little intermission and a box of raisins,

We traveled to Elmo's World! Mr. Noodle was there, but we didn't get a picture of him.

Then we went to the jungle. It was really neat!

Shortly after, Oscar appeared from his garbage can. We wondered if he would be there.

And finally we went to Mardi Gras singing "When the Saints Go Marchin' In".

Bo and I were a little skeptical of whether the show would be worth the money, but we were wrong. It was a great show and getting to experience this with Sophie was priceless. I hope this will be a memory we all hang on to for a very long time!

I'm Donna Det You!

2010-10-16T20:37:00.003-05:00

Sophie's new thing these days is to play peek-a-boo with herself in the mirror. It's really funny to watch, and I was able to catch her doing it on video. Enjoy!

Home 6 months!

2010-10-09T13:25:00.015-05:00

Tomorrow we will have been home 6 months! Time has flown by so quickly, but we are enjoying every minute along the way. I was looking back the other day at the first picture we ever saw of Sophie. I don't think I have ever shared it with you all. I will give you all a little background on the events that led up to our receiving the picture....

As most of you know, we started the China adoption process over 4 years ago. At the time, the wait was around 18 months. As we filled out the mounds of paperwork and did all the things necessary to get our dossier to China, the wait began to extend, and China began changing the rules to curb the number of applications they were receiving to adopt their children. Thankfully, we were already logged into China's adoption system, so the changes didn't really affect us directly, as in make us no longer eligible to adopt, but it did increase the time we had to wait until we received our referral of a child and then travel to China to complete the adoption. All of the paperwork, homestudies, and fingerprinting that are required to adopt from China have expiration dates, so as we were waiting, we were having to renew paperwork, be refingerprinted (in case we committed a crime since we were last fingerprinted), have our backgrounds checked, and update our homestudy. The wait was painful, but at least we had these things to keep us busy and remind us of why were waiting.

Last August or September, a friend of our's who had already adopted from China, emailed me to tell me that China had changed its policy and would now allow anyone waiting for a referral to look on another adoption agency's private list for their child. These children were all special needs children, which was great because we had already decided that we were ready to take the special needs route of China adoption. Most of the children have correctable special needs, and if we had had any biological children ourselves, there was no guarantee that our biological children would be born without some form of health issue. After hearing this news, I began joining various Yahoo groups that adoption agencies from around the US started as a means of notifying those interested that they had a new group of pictures of children from China and as a way for adoptive families to "meet" each other and share experiences and to root each other on through this process.

There was one particular group that I joined that had so many people talking about how great the agency was and how helpful their China coordinator was with matching families with their children. Every day or so, someone new would join the group and ask what others thought about the adoption agency and if they were easy to work with, etc. There was always a flood of posts raving about Xiaoqing, the China coordinator, and how great she was and how she would stay up all night long to talk to the people at the CCAA in China about the children, etc. I kind of stuck that in the back of my mind, and continued to look around at various agency lists, never dreaming that we would find Sophie so soon after.

On Monday, September 21, I checked my email and found a post to the Yahoo group from Xiaoqing about a new list of children that had been received. I looked at the list, there were no pictures ~ only a description of each child, and I saw some information on a little girl, Jan, born in August of 2008. I thought, "Wow, she is really young!". We had asked for a child as young as possible, so I thought, "I'm gonna check this one out." I emailed Xiaoqing and asked what I needed to do to see the pictures of Jan, and she immediately emailed me back with a form that needed to be filled out. I quickly filled it out and sent it back to her. In a little while she emailed me back with the following picture attached. I was blown away! I was looking into the sweetest little face. The face that would soon be our daughter.

We love you so much, Sophie! You were definitely worth the wait!

Our first picture of Sophie

Gotcha Day!

First day home

Home 3 months

And the Winner Is......

2010-10-05T21:10:00.003-05:00

Sophie!!!! Yes, Sophie won the Laura Cantrell Casting Call for 2010! Sophie wins a free 16x20 and a free sitting, and her portrait will be used for advertising for Laura Cantrell's studio until the next casting call. Thanks so much to those of you who voted. We really appreciate it!!

50th Percentile!

2010-09-26T20:27:00.006-05:00

Sophie went for her 2 year old checkup last week. She weighed in at 25 lbs and is 33 1/2 inches tall. Yea! We finally made it to the 50th percentile on the height and weight chart! That's no easy feat for a Chinese child. They normally stay way behind American children and hardly ever catch up. We knew she was growing because her clothes were fitting much different than they had been. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever out grow anything. Well, I'm proud to report that we are. (I may live to regret those words!)

Please Vote For Sophie!

2010-09-21T08:01:00.002-05:00

Sophie is a finalist for Laura Cantrell Photography's Casting Call 2010!

Please go vote for her! You have until noon on Friday, September 24, 2010!

* Go to: www.lauracantrellphotography.com

*Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on

view your personal images here

* A new window will appear , type in the event ID to enter gallery:

castingcall2010

* Fill out your personal information.

Your vote will not count without your name and email address.

*Click Enter Gallery.

*Sophie is on page 2 or 3. The image name starts with Rigby, so you can enter Rigby in the search box and find her that way, if you like. Click on add to favorites. You have to choose 3 favorites for your vote to count.

*When you have selected a total of 3 images click on HOME at the top of the page.

* Click on Favorites and then click Submit Favorites.

*You will then see a notice that says your favorites have been submitted to the photographer.

* IMPORTANT!One vote per email address ONLY! You must vote for 3 different images for your VOTE TO COUNT!

Thanks!!

Home 5 Months

2010-09-09T21:10:00.000-05:00

Wow, it is so hard to believe that we have been home with Sophie for 5 months now. The time has just flown by. She has changed so much so quickly. She is no longer the shy and tiny little girl we first met in China. She has filled out and gotten so much taller. She is a great eater, and thankfully, we have had no problems with dairy, like some Asian children do.

Her vocabulary has grown tremendously lately. This morning we were sitting at a traffic light on our way to daycare. A school bus went by, and she pointed and said "bus", just as clear as day. She will say things sometimes and Bo and I just look at each and ask, "Did she just say that?". I think being in daycare with wonderful teachers and around other kids has made all of the difference in the world.

Sophie's newest thing is trying to dress herself. She loves to put shorts on, no matter if they belong to her or not. Here you notice that she has both legs in one side of her shorts. LOL!

She is learning to put her shoes on by herself and will sit and work for the longest time trying to put them on and buckle them. Of course we have quite a ways to go on the buckling.

She loves wearing my shoes, too!

Working hard

So proud!

She has been such a blessing to us and our entire extended family in these 5 short months. We are really looking forward to celebrating all of the upcoming holidays with her, and seeing things through her eyes. I'm sure these will be holidays that we will never forget.

Happy Birthday, Sophie!

2010-08-29T15:31:00.000-05:00

Sophie turned 2 on August 23, 2010. To celebrate, we had a birthday party at our home on Saturday, August 21. Many family and friends joined the celebration. We started out with birthday cake, ice cream, and many others wonderful things to snack on. After opening an endless pile of presents and cards, the kids retreated to the front yard beween thunderstorms to swim in the pools, ride in the wagon, and play. We had hardly gotten any rain, so, of course, it had to rain on the party, but we made the best of it.

It was a great celebration, and we want to thank everyone who had a part in making it so special.

Happy Birthday, Sophie! Part II

2010-08-29T13:07:00.001-05:00

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy Birthday, dear Sophie. Happy birthday to you!"

Monday morning, we got up singing this song. For breakfast, Sophie was served two muffins, each adorned by a lit candle, that she quickly blew out. We have sung the birthday song and practiced blowing out the candles so much, that now when we sing, with or without candles, she blows at the end!

I wanted to get a picture of Sophie before we left home to go to school. I just about had to chase her down to get one. She's little, but she quick!

Sophie is not a huge fan of cupcakes, so instead, we took cookies to school to have at snacktime. They turned out so cute!

The teachers at school always make the birthday boy or girl feel very special. Sophie got to wear Happy Birthday crown with her name on it, and they gave noise-makers to everyone for the celebration. I'm sure the kids didn't need any help making noise without the horns!

Sophie's teachers were nice enough to take pictures for me since I was not able to stay until snacktime. Here, Sophie and all of her classmates are waiting to go to have their snack.

Based on the picture below, I'm sure Sophie's teachers appreciated the fact that I opted not to do cupcakes. Much less icing to lick here, than on a cupcake!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Sophie! It's hard to believe that you have only been home with us for 5 months now. It's hard to think back to what our lives were like before you came to us. Not nearly as exciting and full and joy as they are today. We love you so, so very much and look forward to celebrating many, many more birthdays!

Love,
Mama and Baba

Sophie's First Independence Day

2010-07-05T17:22:00.000-05:00

Sophie's First Independence Day

We had a great time on Independence Day this year. Sophie got to enjoy all of the things that come along with the holiday, with the exception of fireworks. She ate homemade ice cream and watermelon and enjoyed playing outside with cousins and swimming! She enjoyed every minute, as we did watching her experience it for the first time. We are so happy that she is here with us now and can enjoy all of the freedoms that come along with being a citizen of the USA!

Another Weekend in Orange Beach

2010-07-05T08:14:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we paid another visit to Orange Beach. We were not able to go out on the boat, as the waters were closed due to oil, but we did have a good time anyway. Bo had a small list of little jobs he wanted to do around our place, so Sophie and I spent the morning grocery shopping and playing together. Sophie took a long nap Saturday afternoon, so I was able to get a few shots of her sleeping so peacefully.

On Saturday afternoon, Tim, Michele, Nick, and Anna Kay drove down to go to dinner with us at Wolf Bay Lodge. After a tasty dinner of seafood, we headed over to the beach to let the kids play in the sand. I had been wanting to get some beach pictures of Sophie, and it appeared that we had timed the sunset perfectly.

Sophie wasn't real sure about walking in the sand to begin with,

but she, Nick, and Anna Kay quickly begain playing in the sand.

Then Sophie and her Baba took a walk along the beach,

while Nick and Anna Kay ran back and forth from the sand dunes down to where we were sitting.

We all had a really good time. The temperature was just right, and we felt as though we could sit for hours. Bedtime was closing in quickly, though, so we had to hurry home.

It was a great weekend!

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-23T19:55:00.000-05:00

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband. You are the best father and grandfather ever! We love you so much!

Sophie's First Beach Trip

2010-06-12T20:28:00.000-05:00

To celebrate Sophie being home 2 months and to get in a trip before the oil slick hit Orange Beach, we decided to take a trip to the beach. We weren't sure if Sophie would like the boat, sand, and water, but she did! The vastness of the water was a little overwhelming to her as we walked along the beach, but otherwise, she did great. She and her big cousin, Amy, played in the sand under the umbrella and then Baba played with her for a while too.

We were very surprised that she was not afraid of the boat. Normally, she cries when she's never done something before, but she took the boat in stride. We did let her play in the boat while it was still on land, so that may have helped.

We had a blast and can't wait to go back!

Driving Baba's boat

Dinner at Flipper's

Aunt Beth and Aunt Brenda

Nana, Amy, and Pawpaw

Amy and Uncle Shannon

Cheese! (please excuse the mouth full of Goldfish)

Feeding the fish at Bear Point Marina

First ride on the boat. (I think she liked it, don't you?)

Digging in the sand

Cousin Amy was lots of fun!

Fun in the sun!

This was Lilly's first trip to the beach too!

Lilly wants a tan too!

Dinner at Lester's

Nick's 5th Birthday!

2010-06-12T19:31:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Nick's 5th birthday! He is really into golfing, so he had a golfing birthday party! The burgers, cake and ice cream were delicious, and Nick got lots of great gifts! Pawpaw Bo was working that weekend and had to miss the party, but Sophie and I had a great time! Nick, your birthday party was the very first birthday party that Sophie has been to, so it was really special to her!

We hope you had a great birthday, Nick! We love you!

My First Mother's Day

2010-05-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

My first Mother's Day was very special. We woke up bright and early to get ready to drive to Selma to attend our niece, Emily's, senior recognition service at church, which was also Sophie's first time to go to church. Sophie did great and sat on Bo's knee, watching everything that was going on before falling asleep. After church we all went to lunch and then to my sister's house to relax before Emily's baccalaureate service at 2pm. We made it through most of the service with Sophie before we had to leave because she was talking a little too loudly. She loves being outside, so she didn't mind having to leave at all! The baccalaureate service was very nice, and we were so glad that we were able to go.

As I am sure every mother says, my first Mother's Day is one that I will never forget!

Aunt Beth holding Sophie for the first time

Emily and Sophie after the baccalaureate service

Nana and Pawpaw with all of their granddaughters

Amy and Emily

Home One Month

2010-05-08T13:13:00.001-05:00

Wow, I can't believe we have been home a month already. Time is just flying by. Sophie is doing really well. She has changed so much and has come out of her shell over the last 6 weeks. She has the cutest little personality and smiles all of the time. She is picking up new words everyday, and we have even started learning a little sign language. It's amazing to see just how much their little brains absorb, even when you think they are really not paying attention.

Sophie can sign eat, banana, cracker, milk, and juice. If we say "Let's say the blessing.", or even after we have already said the blessing, she puts her little hands together to say it. She even says her own words in the rhythmic fashion of "God Is Great". She runs to her highchair when we say that it's time to eat. She calls the dog and cats by name, even though she is not a fan of any of them. Much to my horror, she is learning to climb the steps. The one's she loves the most are the brick ones on the front of our house, of course. She does the motions to "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider", "If You're Happy And You Know It", "Patty-Cake". She now says, "there she is", when playing peep-eye. She can say teeth and loves to brush her teeth. She says "sit" and points for you to sit down beside her. She now spontaneously says "Cheese" when you take the camera out. She knows where her nose, eyes, ears, and mouth are, when prompted. She has learned to climb onto the couch or chair by herself and get down by herself.

Let's just say she is a VERY busy little girl, but we are having the time of our lives. We have waited for this for so long and are enjoying every minute of it.

Our Newest Graduate

2010-05-08T12:15:00.001-05:00

Our grandson, Nick, graduated from preschool on Thursday night. It's hard to believe that he's about to start grade school! He has grown up so quickly! They had a really cute program and sang a lot of songs that they have learned throughout the year. He has had a great group of Christian teachers that really love him and the other students. They have all learned so much!

Bebe, Pawpaw Bo, and Sophie are so proud of you, Nick! We love you!

Oh, and Thursday was also Nick's birthday! Happy Birthday, Nick!!

Our First Visit to the International Adoption Clinic

2010-05-08T07:42:00.000-05:00

On Monday, April 26, we had our first visit to the International Adoption Clinic at Children's Hospital in Birmingham. This clinic was started by doctors who have themselves adopted internationally. They know first-hand the services that adopted children and their families need and offer their services so warmly and professionally. We met with a pediatrician, a family theraptist to talk about attachment and bonding, had a kidney ultrasound and labs done.

You may be wondering why Sophie would have to have a kidney ultrasound. If you think back a couple of years, you may remember hearing on the news or reading in the papers and on the internet about tainted milk in China. Melamine was added to formula, which unfortunately killed some children. Since no really knows if the formula our children were given was tainted, the IAC tests every child adopted from China. Children who have been exposed generally have kidney stones and/or other kidney problems. We do not have the results of the ultrasound, and we pray that Sophie was not exposed. She did do really well during the ultrasound. The room was painted as if it were under the sea. There were jellyfish suspended over the bed where the ultrasounds are done, the walls were covered in beautiful murals of fish, turtles, coral, and sea grasses. Sophie held my hands while I sang to her and talked to her about the fish and the beach, and in no time, the ultrasound was complete!

We found out that Sophie is between the 5th and 10th percentile in height and weight for her age group, which is not uncommon for adopted Asian children. The pediatrician found Sophie to be really healthy and was very happy that she is eating and sleeping so well. The family therapist thought that her attachment and bonding were coming along really well and advised us to continue what we were doing.

The last thing we had to do before we could leave was have labs done. I was SO nervous about this. You never want to see your child stuck with a needle, but I knew that it had to be done so that we would know exactly the immunizations she had had in China. I would rather her be stuck this one time, rather than stuck multiple times later for unnecessary immunizations. The nurse was so good with her and only had to stick her once. She was a trooper. She cried, but only for a little while. After it was all done, her booboo liked like a little ant bite, and she did not bruise at all!

Thanks to all of the staff at the IAC. You are awesome!

Sophie's First Haircut

2010-05-01T13:56:00.000-05:00

Sophie got her first US haircut this week. From all of the pictures we received of Sophie prior to her adoption, her haircuts always looked as if they were done with clippers. Now that her hair is growing out, at a rapid pace I might add, it was time to get her bangs trimmed. I was afraid that she would not let Brenda cut it, but she did great!

Look at me! Doesn't my new haircut look cute!

Hanging with PawPaw

2010-04-30T22:11:00.001-05:00

It seems that Nana (my mother) has been in most of the pictures with Sophie since we have been home, and we have had none of Pawpaw (my father) and Sophie. So as to not slight Pawpaw, here is post just for him!

Sophie showing Pawpaw how all of these new toys work!

Sophie's New Friend, Hannah Grace

2010-04-30T21:53:00.001-05:00

Sophie had her first appointment at the International Adoption Clinic on Monday, so we drove up on Sunday afternoon. Sunday night, we met our friends, Mike, Rhonda, and Hannah Grace for dinner. We all met through the adoption process, while we were still waiting to find out who our children were going to be. We both happened to be on the same adoption Yahoo group and met only after Rhonda sent me an email telling me she was from Alabama. We decided to meet one weekend and have been friends ever since!

Mike,Rhonda and Hannah Grace had not met Sophie since her adoption, so it was the perfect time for us all to get together. The girls were so sweet together. They ran, played, and had the best time. Hannah Grace even wanted to go to the doctor with Sophie, just so she could see her and play with her. How SWEET is that?

Though the get together was short, we are going to make it a point to get together when we are in their area, which will be very frequent.

Mike, Rhonda, and Hannah Grace, we had a great time seeing you all and can't wait until we can get together again!

Meeting More Family and Playmates

2010-04-30T21:33:00.001-05:00

While on our way to Birmingham Sunday, we stopped off for Sophie to meet big brother, Lee, and his family. It was a beautiful day and found everyone outside when we arrived. We quickly noticed just how much everyone has grown. Tyler and Brianne are getting so tall, and Wyatt and Bailey are growing bigger and stronger everytime we see them. Wyatt ways over 11 pounds, and Bailey weighs over 10 pounds. In the bottom picture you will notice that Granddaddy is going to need a bigger lap very soon!

Sophie meeting Lee and Bailey

Granddaddy(a.k.a. Baba, Pawpaw Bo) needs a bigger lap!

Nick's T-Ball Game

2010-04-30T21:20:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday night, we went to watch Nick play t-ball for the first time. We love to watch the little ones play because they have a really good time digging in the dirt and jumping around, and they play a little t-ball in between.

Sophie really had a good time because she LOVES being outside, and she got to spend some time with Merril and Anna Kay. She ran and ran, and Aunt Brenda chased her all over the place. I don't know who was more tired at the end of the game, Aunt Brenda or Sophie.

Nick, Bebe, Pawpaw Bo, and Sophie loved watching you play t-ball, and plan to watch you play again before the end of the season!

Welcome Home!! Part 2.......

2010-04-24T16:38:00.001-05:00

I just realized that I forgot to post about all of the "Welcome Home" signs and decorations that were waiting for us when we got home. We were so surprised and thrilled to see them when we got home. Thanks to everyone who made posters and helped decorate. It was great!!

One Week Home

2010-04-19T21:15:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that we have been home a week already. Time goes by so fast, and Sophie is changing and learning new things everyday. She can now say Mama, Baba, Nana, PawPaw, Nala(our cat, whom she is VERY afraid of), no-no(she hears this a good bit), and shoes. She has transitioned from sleeping in the Pack 'n Play in our bedroom to sleeping in her bed in her room.

We are still trying to get her adjusted to our time, but everyday gets a little better. Sophie is eating like a champ, and we certainly hope it continues!

Sophie is meeting lots of family and has had several visitors in the past week. She has met two of her brothers and their families, with the exception of Jessica, who was directing a wedding on Saturday. She has met 5 of her Baba's 10 siblings, all of her aunts and uncles on my side of the family, and her great-great-great aunt, Jeannie, who is in her 90's! Needless to say, she's been getting a whole lot of attention, and I think she knows it! We are looking forward to her getting to meet the rest of her family very soon!

With big brother, Tim

With big brother, Tim and his family

With big brother, Mike and Merrill

Merrill and Sophie

With Aunt Emily and Uncle JW

With Uncle James

With Uncle Mickey

With Aunt Margaret

With BJ and Larry

With Great-Great-Great Aunt Jeanie

Trying To Adjust To Central Time

2010-04-15T06:54:00.000-05:00

Since getting home, we have been trying to help Sophie adjust to central time. When it is nap time here, it is night-night sleep time in China. Needless to say, it has been very difficult for her to wake up after napping for an hour and a half. In an effort to wake her and keep her awake, we have been playing outside. The weather has been beautiful, and it has given me an opportunity to get some great pictures of her.

Oatmeal and the Backyardigans

2010-04-14T18:11:00.000-05:00

Sophie loves to dance to music. Tonight the special music was provided by the Backyardigans. Enjoy!

We Made It Home!

2010-04-12T14:58:00.001-05:00

After 30 LONG hours, we finally made it home! Sophie did great on the flights and was welcomed by a wonderful group of family and friends, who are like family. There were poster sized pictures of all of us that Aunt Renee did, and posters welcoming us home that other family members made. It was so special!! Sophie seemed to take it all in and then realized that this was all for her, and she just smiled and laughed, just as the center of attention should!

After the 1 1/2 hour drive home from the airport and the 7 hour sleep that Sophie took on one of the flights, we were afraid that she would not sleep Saturday night, but to our surprise, she did! I woke her up at 8am on Sunday to try to keep her somewhat on a schedule. She ate and played well that first day home, and has done so since. With the exception of trying to make the switch to our time, she has taken everything in stride. We are working on the sleep schedule and are sure we will have it worked out very sooon.

I apologize that I'm so late making this post. It's been up on my computer for 3 days now, and I've just gotten the chance to post it. There will definitely be more posts to come, so be watching for them!

Thanks to Aunt Johnnye for the photos!

Last Post from China

2010-04-09T00:02:00.001-05:00

Today is our last post from China! We have had a great time, and this has been the experience of a lifetime. At the same time, we are very ready to go home, for Sophie to meet, in person, the rest of her family.

We have been to the consulate and had our swearing in. When Sophie's little feet touch the ground in Minneapolis, she will become a US citizen, and what a cute one she will be! We go today at 3pm to pick up Sophie's passport and visa. From there, we will go to the train station to catch our train to Hong Kong. Our flight leaves Hong Kong at 8:30 in the morning, and we are scheduled to arrive in Mobile around 9pm tomorrow.

We would like to say thank you to everyone who has followed along on this journey with us and left comments for us. We have enjoyed reading each and every one!

If you would like to meet us at the airport Saturday night, we would love to see you!!

Visa Day

2010-04-08T06:29:00.001-05:00

Today was a free day, with the exception of the time we had to stay in our room to wait for a call from our guide, who was placing Sophie's visa application. We had to wait in the room in case there were any questions. She called at 11:30 and said that everything was good, so we were able to get out for a bit.

We walked around the island for a little bit and grabbed a bite of lunch. While we were eating, it started raining, and we had no umbrella. We had to hurry through the rain back to the hotel. It rained most of the rest of the day.

Tomorrow we go to the pearl market before going to the consulate for our swearing in. We are getting more and more excited about coming home!!

More From Yuntai Gardens

2010-04-07T08:10:00.001-05:00

Yuntai Gardens

2010-04-07T00:51:00.000-05:00

After Sophie's medical exam, we headed out the Yuntai Gardens. They were absolutely beautiful! We strolled around for a couple of hours admiring all of the flowers and water features, which Sophie especially liked. We saw many of the same flowers we have at home and some that we have never seen before.

We walked up to a greenhouse where the orchids are kept. As we walked up, we smelled the sweet fragrance of a tea olive, and I was quickly reminded of home. I always think of Aunt Estell and Uncle A.G. Smith when I smell the tea olive. They had one outside their home, and it always smelled so good. Aunt Estell shared of cutting of her tea olive with my mom a long time ago, so I still get to smell that sweet fragrance every summer.

More Photos of Medical Exam Day

2010-04-07T00:37:00.000-05:00

Medical Exam Day

2010-04-07T00:30:00.000-05:00

Today was the day for Sophie's medical exam. She passed with flying colors and did really well with the doctors. She weighs 23 pounds and is 30 inches tall. She feels like she's much heavier now than when we first met her a week and a half ago, but I think that is to be expected, considering the amount of food this little girl can put away!

The ENT checked her ears, and we were told they were clear of any infection. The doctor tried to get her to open her mouth and say "Ah", but she was having nothing of that. She screamed "Ah" at the ENT, and she found out what a good set of lungs Sophie has! The next doctor listened to her heart and lungs and asked if she had been coughing, which she has not, and then we were done!

Besides the numerous mosqitoes the size of big flies, it was an easy visit.

She's A Smart One

2010-04-06T00:44:00.000-05:00

Everyday when we go out sightseeing, we hang the diaper bag on the handles of the stroller. Last night, Sophie was playing with a Starbucks sack and pushing the stroller around. The next thing we knew, she had hung her Starbucks sack on a little hook on the stroller! After investigating a little further, the sack had a sippy cup in it. I guess she was going somewhere. Too cute!

Six Banyan Temple

2010-04-06T00:32:00.000-05:00

Today, after completing paperwork for Sophie's visa, we visited the Six Banyan Temple, where all of the Buddhas are. It was a holiday, Tomb Weeping Day, where everyone goes to pray for blessing for their families, dead or alive, and burn incense. Needless to say, it was packed! Some Chinese burn paper clothes, food, money, and even paper cars for their families members to receive in the afterlife, so that they won't be cold or without anything. It is a relief to know we will have bountiful blessings in heaven and that we don't have to worry about our loved ones, and our loved ones won't have to worry about us, once we get to Heaven.

There are no longer six banyan trees there, but only two. We also saw where the people go to study the Buddhist religion. We were told that their books cannot be understood by the average person, i.e., you can't read it on your own. Someone has to tell you what everthing in the books mean. All in all, it was a pretty interesting visit, but made me even more glad to be a Christian!

Catching Up

2010-04-05T01:09:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you are all wondering what happened to us yesterday. I came down with a stomach bug and was out of commission for the day. With the help of some anti-nausea meds and some cipro, I'm on the mend again. We think it was something I ate, but there's no way to know for sure. Thankfully, neither Bo nor Sophie has gotten sick. We were scheduled to visit some gardens yesterday, which of course we did not visit. I think my sickness was a blessing in disguise. It gave Bo and Sophie some bonding time, and she let him do everything for her.

The next few days are going to be busy ones. We have lots of paperwork to do, and then there's the medical exam. We are counting down the days now until we get to come home. We've been making a list of things we want to eat when we get there. I'm sure there willl be plenty of food to be had, and we can't wait to see everyone!

I will leave you with a few more things that Sophie is doing now.

- She waves and says "bye-bye"

- She says "Baba"(father) and "Ma" ( we are guessing is Mama)

- She recognizes the playground and wants to get out of the stroller when we get near it

- She plays Peep-eye by getting behind the chair and peaking out and saying "Pie-pie"

Free Day

2010-04-03T04:01:00.000-05:00

Today was a free day, but it was very rainy, so we stayed in most of the day. Sophie is cutting 4 molars and has been a little fussy, but otherwise is still doing well. She is a great eater and LOVES her Cheerios. She ate grits for breakfast this morning, so she's definitely going to be a Southern girl!

Since there was no sighseeing today, I will leave you with a few pictures.

A Few More Pictures From the Day

2010-04-02T00:58:00.000-05:00

The Chen Clan Academy House

2010-04-02T00:54:00.000-05:00

Today was a sightseeing day. We visited the Chen Clan Academy House that was built by the Chen family from 1890 to 1894, during the Ming Dynasty. Here the Chen family lived and attended school. The house also acted as sort of a hotel for the Chen family members who were traveling to the area. If you were not a member of the Chen family, you could not stay here, nor go to school here. It is a very beautiful building with many different rooms, each serving a different function. The carvings on the house and roof are very intricate and beautiful.

Sophie rode in the stroller during this sightseeing tour. Jennifer's Place, a little store next door to the hotel, let us borrow the stroller, so we picked it up the yesterday afternoon. We don't think Sophie had ever ridden in a stroller because she cried the first time we put her in it. We practiced riding in the stroller last night, so that she would not be afraid during our sightseeing. She did great!

While at the Chen Clan Academy House, we had Sophie's Chinese name professionally painted on a scroll in caligraphy. It turned out beautiful, and we can't wait to hang it in the house. There was also an artist there that painted only with his hand, without any brushes. His work was beautiful too!

After sightseeing, we came back to the hotel for lunch and a nap. We then walked around the island. We found a little pastry shop that sells hand-dipped ice cream. We stopped in for a scoop. Bo got vanilla, and Sophie and I shared a scoop of mango ice cream. It was delicious! I hope we can find mango ice cream when we get back to the States! I gave Sophie a little taste of the ice cream to see if she was going to like it. She made the worst face when she took the little bit into her mouth because it was so cold, but she quickly discovered that she REALLY liked it! I thought she was going to climb out of the stroller trying to get more of it. We finished the ice cream quickly and continued our journey around the island.

We stopped by the playground and let Sophie slide down the slide. That was a big hit! She laughed and laughed. They had told us that she really likes being outside, and they were not kidding. I'm so glad that it is not cold now. She would have been miserable all cooped up inside the whole time.

Sophie seems to be warming up to her Baba (Chinese for father) more today. She waves at him and will walk with him down the hall holding onto his finger with her little hand. He left the room for a minute yesterday, and she cried, so I think she's liking him a little bit more.

Today's firsts for Sophie:

- riding in the stroller

- sliding down the slide at the playground

- eating peanut butter

- eating ice cream

Passport Photo Day

2010-04-01T02:33:00.000-05:00

Today was passport photo day for Sophie, so we were on our own until 3pm. We had a leisurely morning and skipped the hotel breakfast buffet. Instead, Bo sprang for blueberry muffins and coffee from Starbucks, and Sophie had her very first bowl of apple and cinnamon oatmeal, which she liked very much! After Skyping with family, we headed out to walk around the island. We walked to the Pearl River where there was a lot of activity going on. There was one group singing, one ballroom dancing, and others doing tai chi or playing hackey sack. Our guide tells us that these people are either retired or self-employed.

Sophie really enjoyed watching the boats go by on the river. She kept pointing and grunting at them. We think she's going to like the beach and the boat because she loves taking a bath too. We continued walking through the various parks. She likes to walk, so she would hold onto our finger as we walked around. We watched the school kids doing their morning exercise, and then grabbed a bite of lunch before heading back to the hotel for Sophie to have a nap before heading to the police station.

The actual taking of the picture was uneventful. We just had to sit down across the desk from the police woman so that she could take Sophie's picture with a webcam. Then we were done! We came back to the hotel and picked up our laundry and borrowed a stroller from Jennifer's place downstairs to use when we go sightseeing. While we were there, we picked up a traditional Chinese shirt for Bo, a dress for me, and a dress for Sophie, and then grabbed some dinner at the Cow and Bridge before heading back up to the room.

We are learning more and more about Sophie every day, and she is learning new things daily. On the first day that we met her, I started playing Patty Cake with her. She could not really clap on her own. Tonight she started doing it on her own, without being prompted. She is talking and even singing some, though most of what she says or sings we cannot understand. She does say "Xie xie", which is Chinese for "Thank You", and we think she is going to be left-handed.

Notary and Registration Day

2010-03-31T01:05:00.000-05:00

Tuesday started out early. We had to meet our guide in the lobby at 8am to go back to the Civil Affairs office for two interviews, one with the notary and the other with the registrar, to have Sophie's picture made, and to do a little more paperwork. It was a pretty painless process, with the exception of the registrar. He didn't seem to like us too much, but we understand that we were his first customers that morning and that he gets more friendly throughout the day. I was a bit nervous he was going to tell us that we couldn't proceed with the adoption! I don't know that that has ever happened before, but I was a little worried. Maybe he just needed a little more time to wake up or another cup of coffee or tea!

Anyway, we had to tell them why we wanted to adopt from China, and then we had to promise to take very good care of her, to never discriminate against her, abandon, or abuse her. When we were done there, we went to Carrefore shopping. It's a French Wal-mart basically. It has more than one floor, though I'm not sure exactly how many floors. We only went to two of them, the food level and the level that has diapers. To get from one floor to the other, you take something like a moving sidewalk that goes up. Imagine an escalator, but without the steps. They have anything in there you could ever imagine. We bought a watermelon, some drinks and snacks, and of course some diapers and wipes. I brought one package of diapers with me, but they are too big. She wears 12m or 18 month shirts, but 12m pants fall off of her. She has a tiny hiney, needless to say! It's a good thing someone suggested that I bring safety pins! The shopping carts are much different here than in the US. Here, the front and back wheels swivel. I have to say it was very hard not to run down someone or something with that cart! That was about the extent of our day.

Several people have asked if we have met many people while we have been here. There is a family from Atlanta down the hall from us. We've shared some of our meds with them, as their little girl is sick with a cold or bronchitis or something. Then I finally met Fliss and her husband who live in Florida. They were introduced to us by a mutual friend, Monica. Thanks, Monica! Before coming to China, we had only chatted via email or on Facebook. Fliss is a hoot! They have a precious daughter. We've met a couple from New York who are adopting a little boy, a family from St. Louis who is here adopting their 6th daughter. This family used our adoption agency for one of their previous adoptions. And a family from Maryland, who is in Fliss's group. Everyone has been really friendly, and it's been a lot of fun getting to know so many different people.

Our first day together

2010-03-30T06:41:00.000-05:00

Gotcha Day started out pretty relaxed. We prepared the room for Sophie's arrival and then walked around the island (Shamain Island) for a bit and found Lucy's for some lunch. For those of you who are not familiar with the whole China adoption process, Lucy's is a restaurant on Shamian Island that serves American style cuisine. It was such a nice day out, we sat outside at an umbrella covered table and had a cheeseburger and fries. It was quite good! We had to be back in the lobby at 2:15 to meet our guide to go the Civil Affairs office to get Sophie. The drive was a bit hectic, as most drives are anywhere in China, but we arrived safely.

When we walked in, there were people everywhere! Our guide suggested we find a place to stand to wait for Sophie. She brought over some paperwork for us to fill out and suggested we go into one of the rooms to fill it out. My heart was racing, as everyone was talking and I knew in just minutes we would see our daughter in person for the very first time. The paperwork was finished quickly, and we went back out into the room to wait. I gave the video camera to the guide and the digital camera to Bo to take pictures and as soon as I turned around, there she was walking toward me.

I just knew she was going to start screaming, but she didn't. I picked her up ever so slowly and sat down with her. She stood straight up on my legs! I talked to her for a few minutes and kept telling her that I was her Mommy. She finally sat down, and I kept talking to her. We went back into the room where we had previously done the paperwork so that our guide to talk to the orphanage worker and ask some questions about Sophie. Turns out that she was the one who would go out and check on Sophie when she was in foster care. She said Sophie was very smart and loved to explore and figure out how things work. She also said that she was bossy around other kids!

While our guide was talking to the orphanage worker, Bo did a little paperwork while Sophie and I played. We played with the stacking cups and Mardi Gras beads. Both were a hit. In just a few minutes she was smiling and even laughed a few times. We left the Civil Affairs office shortly after and came back to the hotel to do some more paperwork. She played with Bo and me very well. Later, we walked down the street to the Italian restaurant and ordered a pizza for us, and some chicken and rice for Sophie and came back to the hotel to eat. She ate a very good dinner before getting a bath. I put her down at 9:00, to which she objected, but I laid down at the foot of our bed where she could see me, and she quickly drifted off to sleep. She slept until about 5am!

We have been so blessed, and our prayers, and yours, were heard. We appreciate them all so much!

Thanks for all of your sweet comments! We really appreciate them as well!

We Have Her!

2010-03-29T07:25:00.000-05:00

Today was one of the very best days of my life! She is absolutely beautiful!

More Beijing

2010-03-29T07:20:00.000-05:00

FW: Our Last Day in Beijing

2010-03-29T07:19:00.000-05:00

Today was our last day in Beijing. We started out the day early in order to make it to all of the places we wanted to go. There is so much traffic, and we have been in several traffic jams. There are few rules on the road, and I made the mistake of asking our guide how many car accidents there are. She says not many, but then we see 4 or 5 wrecks right after that, none of them serious. We are told that there is traffic control in place during the week that allows cars with liscense plates ending in even or odd numbers to drive on certain days of the week. On the weekend, though, anyone can drive. And they do! There are 18 million people liviing in Beijing, and many have cars, so you can imagine how bad the traffic was.

Our first stop was Tianamen Square. It is very big, holding approximately a half a million people. We saw a monument erected to remember those who died during their wars, and we saw where Chairman Mao would come out on the balcony to talk to the people. When you see the picture, I'm sure you will recognize it from the news or history books. We then toured the Forbidden City, part of it, I should say. All of it is not open. The buildings are beautiful. Most all of the buildings have gates that lead into and out of the different parts of the city, and most of the doorways have high thresholds to keep out the evil spirits. They believe that the spirits cannot jump over the thresholds.

Next was the silk factory. We saw how the silk is taken from the cocoons and spun into threads. We also helped stretch the silk to make a silk blanket. Cocoons with one pupae in them are used to make thread, while the cocoons with two pupae are stretched to make the blankets. The silk threads are very coarse and strong, while the silk from the double pupae cocoons are very soft and still very strong. They had beautiful things to buy here.

Lastly, we went to a Chinese tea house and participated in a traditional tea ceremony. We tasted three different teas, but the ginseng tea was our favorite. From the tea house we headed to the airport. Our flight to Guangzhou was uneventful, thankfully, and we arrived safely. Our hotel is very nice, and we have seen several families who are adopting and have already had their Gotcha Day. I'm sure we will meet many more. Please say a prayer for us as we prepare for Sophie's arrival in a few short hours!

More Beijing

2010-03-28T21:23:00.000-05:00

Pictures of us stretching silk at the silk factory and our guide, Theresa, and driver, Master Tom. In China, you have to take a test to become a master driver before you can drive tourists around. You have to be a master driver to maneuver in the traffic here!